The ABC has pushed back against accusations it committed the same “journalistic sin” as the BBC, after the UK broadcaster was found to have edited footage of former US president Donald Trump’s January 6 speech.
Over the weekend, a leaked memo from former BBC Editorial Guidelines and Standards committee adviser Michael Prescott was published by The Telegraph, suggesting that the BBC’s “Panorama” program edited Trump’s speech to make it sound like he encouraged the Capitol riots last year.
Prescott’s memo said “Panorama” edited Trump’s speech to be: “We’re gonna walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be with you and we fight. We fight like hell and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not gonna have a country anymore.”
Prescott wrote that Trump said the part beginning with “and we fight” 54 minutes after “we’re gonna walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be with you.”
The leak resulted in the resignation of BBC director general Tim Davie and CEO of news Deborah Turness, while Trump has threatened to sue the broadcaster for $1 billion.
Since then, Sky News host Chris Kenny claimed that the ABC made an “almost identical act of deception” in its 2021-aired Four Corners episode, Downfall – the Last Days of President Trump, in that it omitted a part of Trump’s speech similar to the BBC.
“Our ABC has committed the same journalistic sin, surely,” Kenny said.
“They have clipped up the speech to suit their narrative rather than reality, and the true meaning of what Donald Trump said.”
On Wednesday, ABC Managing Director, Hugh Marks, responded to the allegations.
“Comparing the BBC’s ‘Panorama’ program to the ABC’s ‘Four Corners’ program is opportunistic and false,” Marks said in a statement.
“The BBC program spliced together two separate grabs from different sections of the speech President Donald Trump made during that day that occurred about 54 minutes apart, leading to criticism that the program was misleading.
The grab on Four Corners was used accurately by the program. The editing did not change the meaning of that section of the speech and did not mislead the audience. The program was consistent with the ABC’s high standards of factual, accurate and impartial storytelling.”
ABC detailed the edited section of the grab in bold below:
“And Mike Pence is going to have to come through for us, and if he doesn’t, that will be a, a sad day for our country because you’re sworn to uphold our Constitution. Now, it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy. And after this, we’re going to walk down, and I’ll be there with you, [we’re going to walk down, we’re going to walk down. Anyone you want, but I think right here, we’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them.] Because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong.”
“The edit does not alter the factual meaning of the selected portion or misrepresent the speaker’s intent,” Marks statement continues.
“The edited segment retains the essential factual elements of the speech, namely, the call for supporters to “walk down to the Capitol” and to “show strength.”
“‘Downfall’ is powerful journalism of the highest standard. The ABC is proud of it.”